The Amazon-owned deals website revealed that 50 million of its user accounts were compromised by hackers, who gained unauthorised access to customer data from its servers.

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"The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords - technically 'hashed' and 'salted' passwords," said LivingSocial in a statement on its website.

LivingSocial assured users that no credit card details were stolen during the breach, but told customers to change their passwords nevertheless.

The website is not the only online service to fall victim to hackers of late, with Evernote and Wordpress suffering similar attacks.

LivingSocial has posted an FAQ on its website to explain the situation.